Cowboy Poetry

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) accused the GOP of being heartless for attempting to defund the National Endowment for the Humanities, which underwrites a cowboy poetry festival in his state (which, as it turns our, only accounts for 3% of the festival's funding).

Now, humor columnist Tom Purcell has written some "cowboy poetry" of his own specifically for Harry Reid. I hope he appreciates it:

Well, Mr. Harry Reid, leader of the U.S. Senate majority,

You’re plum wrong about federal-funded cowboy poetry.

A few weeks back, you took to the Senate floor

Deploring cuts to a cowboy-poetry festival you said would be no more.

It exists through the benevolence of the federal government, you decried,

Whose funding makes it bona fide.

Don’t you know, Mr. Harry Reid,

That America is the land of the free?

We built this land through our grit and our guts,

Not the misuse of taxpayer funds.

That’s the thing we’re desperate to be ending,

Ridiculous spending and Chinese lending.

But in Washington, D.C., there’s a disconnect,

Between those who produce and those who collect.

We already spend on things we can’t cover,

Yet some politicians are eager to add others.

Here’s what is worrying us average Joes,

We’re worried for our kids and what their future holds.

We broke, we’re flat, we’ve got nothing to spend,

Unnecessary programs must come to an end.

Yet for the prior two years, sir, you and some others

Have grown government to the point that it smothers.

And so it was you took an economic mess

And you did your best to make it a “permanent worse.”

The stimulus program you said was a “must”

Is dang near a trillion-dollar bust.

Thanks to the health care “plan” your party rammed through,

Private job creators aren’t sure what to do.

Spending too little is the least of our woes,

Our federal budget is nearly $4 trillion — twice what it was a decade ago!